Thursday, June 4, 2009

A short history of corporate hacking

The scale of hacking activity from China and Russia has started to emerge through a series of frantic announcements. Rumours of the activities of Russian hackers and their involvement with organised crime had circulated since 2000 but it was not until 2003 that the Chinese emerged as big players.

Protracted attacks targeted networks at Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories, Redstone Arsenal and Nasa, and came to light in 2005. At around the same time the Russian Business Network, a cybercrime organisation that specialises in identity theft, denial of service, computer extortion and child pornography, emerged. The RBN established itself as prepared to do anything for a price. In November 2005 Roger Cummings, director of the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre, revealed the UK was also under attack from China.

Jan 2006 The Guardian reveals Chinese hackers had even attacked the Houses of Parliament

Sept 2007 Chinese hackers have Foreign Office in their sights

Nov 2007 RBN goes underground

Dec 2007 MI5 warns business leaders of Chinese hacking threat

Mar 2009 Researchers reveal Chinese spy network has hacked documents from government and private computers in 103 countries

Apr 2009 Chinese hackers are claimed to have stolen plans for the Joint Strike Fighter from Lockheed Martin

No comments:

Post a Comment